Has your teen been asked to TDTM? Urged to GNOC? Warned to KPC? (Better find out ASAP.)
9 common sexting terms every parent should know.
Right now, a sexual predator may be telling your child that it’s time to LMIRL. An online acquaintance could be pressuring your teen into becoming an MPFB. A close friend could be pleading IWSN to your child.
In order to facilitate and disguise these inappropriate – and often dangerous – conversations, a sexting shorthand has emerged. As a parent, you may not know what these acronyms stand for, but chances are your teen does.
One in four teens - some as young as 12 years old - have received or sent sext messages. Is your child among them? If your answer is “Hell no”, consider this: in the predatory world of teen sexting, the first commandment is to KPC (Keep Parents Clueless).
Unfortunately, the feeling appears to be mutual. In a recent survey, one in five parents admitted that they won’t talk to their teen about sexting. Which means that more than 8 million teens are getting their sext education from the very people seeking to exploit them.
The result? Millions of teenage boys and girls have been NIFOC (Nude In Front Of Camera). They are counting on the recipient to keep it private, but the truth is that more than half of teens who receive a sext message will share it with friends. Chances are, your teen has sent or seen an inappropriate text or photo. If they are the sender, they can count on being harassed, alienated and bullied. What’s more, the photos can follow them for life, affecting their ability to get into college, find employment or maintain friendships.
But that’s not the worst of it: nearly 20% of teens who post nude photos send them to people they’ve met through the internet. And there’s a very good chance that these online acquaintances are child predators. These predators establish seemingly innocent relationships with vulnerable teens. Casual flirtation will evolve into sexual innuendo. Teens will be encouraged to TDTM (Talk Dirty To Me) and, eventually, asked to GNOC (Get Naked On Camera).
Before teens understand what is happening to them, predators have maneuvered their prey into revealing their ASL (Age/Sex/Location). The predator claims to live near them and suggests that they LMIRL (Let’s Meet In Real Life).
And a child’s life is forever changed.
As a parent, it’s your job to keep your child safe from harm. But teens aren’t likely to share sext messages with you. Right this very second, a stranger could be telling your son or daughter to GYPO (Get Your Pants Off). An acquaintance could be sharing photos of your teen, telling everyone that he or she is MPFB (My Personal F*** Buddy). A friend could be letting your teen know that IWSN (I Want Sex Now).
Your children are in danger. How far would you go to protect them?
Monitoring your teen’s online activity: an ethical dilemma.
If you could surreptitiously monitor your teen’s cell phone activity, would you do it?
There are a number of apps available today that allow you to discreetly screen your child’s texts, calls and social media. They can help you keep your child safe – but it’s a slippery slope.
Some parents consider it a breach of privacy and a betrayal of trust. Others feel that, in a world in which invisible predators can target vulnerable teens so easily, monitoring their teen’s cell phone usage is an absolute necessity.
Consider the benefits of these device monitoring apps:
You can monitor their text messages – even the deleted ones. Cell phone monitoring apps allow you to read all sent, received and text messages without touching your teen’s cell phone. Just log in to your account to access your child’s data.
You can track their calls and social media. Your app gives you access to all of your teen’s call logs, including contact name, number, date and duration of call. You can also view your teen’s social media posts, read comments and see who’s following your teen.
You can follow their trail – online and off. These apps enable you to follow your teen through the digital world, seeing what sites they’ve visited, which ones they’ve bookmarked and who their contacts are. You can monitor your teen in the real world as well. You can see the cell phone’s current location on a map, as well as a history of the phone’s location.
Sexting can destroy your child’s life. Discreet monitoring could save it.
Should you track your teen’s cell phone activity? Do the dangers of sexting warrant such intrusion? Here’s a simple test: If you can answer yes to all three of these questions, you probably don’t need a monitoring app.
Is your teen strong enough to resist the peer pressure to sext? Is your teen mature enough to know when an online acquaintance is exploiting him or her? Would your teen feel comfortable asking for your help when the sexting goes too far?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, you may want to consider installing a monitoring app on your child’s cell phone. Because the only way an online predator can succeed in luring your child is to KPC.
